Aditya Nath Jha, Head of Global Branding and Corporate Marketing at Infosys presented on the 2nd of February. I took notes, luckily, because it was one of the best company presentations we have been seen at the Mannheim Business School this year.
We never know what we will get at these presentations. Sometimes the speaker simply tells us how good their company is, sometimes they don't even mention the company and simply give us a presentation to somehow inspire us to join the company. This one from Infosys was somewhere in between. Unfortunately for many of us who are interested, they are looking for experienced German nationals to give them a direct contact with the industry here. They are expanding rapidly in Germany currently. Due to their employee demographic being 96% Indian they have had troubles previously getting traction in the German market. It looks like they have woken up to this and are starting to make some progress. So although not so useful to us as a recruiting drive it was a great presentation nonetheless. Here are some notes:
Six Key changes in Marketing:
1)
"Inform to Engage" - was the old model. The idea was to broadcast in the hope of tempting people to buy their product. Now the model is simply "Engage". Examples such as mydell.com highlight the power of providing a platform for people to present their ideas. For Coke, a big step was to define the difference between legal ownership of the brand and emotional ownership of the brand. The later provided the opportunity for people to use the brand in a manner that inspired them and allowed them to take passionate ownership of the brand. Understanding, creating a relationship and gaining feedback are cornerstones of marketing and with the internet this is far easier to achieve. The ihatecoke.com campaign is an example where they actively seek and engage with negative feedback to improve their product and brand image.
Furthermore, the internet can be used to test product loyalty and foster it. Customer churn on average is 50% every two years. This represents a huge cost to constantly replace customers.
2)
Proctor and Gamble created the idea of a company brand as distinct from a product brand. In fact they apparently coined the term 'brand'. Today's companies need to understand this branding to avoid damaging it, irrespective of what the product is. The example Aditya used is Microsoft. For many years, Microsoft was the underdog to IBM. This somehow won the hearts and minds of budding computer users who felt IBM was the curse of the corporate world. This helped Microsoft grow to where it is today. However significant damage occurred when Microsoft tackled Netscape in the 90's. In this example the issue is not the product but the behaviour of the company. Microsoft was now seen as a bully. The arrogance of Microsoft was not taken well by the public.
Aditya started singing the song: "every breath you make" by the Police http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DFekWAxip4 to make the point that consumers are always watching. There is no where to hide. He suggested that the public will forgive the company if they are honest regarding product failure but the behaviour of the company is not so excusable. On the internet, a week is a long time, so for web and IT companies they have to act quickly.
3)
"Listening rather than shouting" is a key tactic for today's businesses. Traditionally the strength of a marketer was how loud he could shout. Now the digital age provides a medium to listen. [www.ubervu.com is a cool tool I found some time ago]. At Infosys there is a team of listeners who track what is being said about the company. This enabled many staff problems broadcast to the web to be managed and also allows them to target their business development efforts due to the better understanding of the market. Marketers need to learn the fine skill of listening.
4)
Measuring marketing ROI has previously been a difficult task. However in this day and age everyone leaves a digital trail. Putting information onto the web means it's measurable. That can be a huge tool for marketers.
5)
"Hunting to get found" was the old model, that is Marketers going out to hunt for consumers. Otherwise known as "Push" advertising. These days, consumers are definitely "pulling" for products. Consumers are hunting marketers. Companies who are prepared to be found are getting the job. One statistic stated that 80% of conumers found suppliers via mobile or online media or by accident.
6)
When discussing the issues of marketing in a global society across international boundaries, Aditya gave a great example. He used Ponds, the female skin care cream to discuss how intelligent marketing was able to handle this international issue. The international issue, in skin care, is that each women comes from different backgrounds, they have different coloured skin and live in different environments - sunny, tropical, dry, cold etc. Ponds cleverly boiled their marketing campaign down to the one aspect that was universal in the world. That aspect is the relationship between "women and their skin". Every marketing campaign revolved around that creating a common Ponds theme but still could be tailored for different countries.
Conclusion:
For Infosys, a relative underdog in the IT service industry, marketing up against the giants (IBM, Accenture etc), they employ techniques in line with issues discussed here. Practising here what Aditya preaches. They use Twitter to broadcast public news, awards, Whitepapers and intercultural matters. They have an internal and external Youtube channel to broadcast news and information. They publish blogs, they have 60,000 slides for download on slide-share. Their recruiting department Instep recruits on Facebook and online as well as keeping in contact with Alumni. The focus being on efficient use of resources. We can learn a lot from this.
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